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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27658505">Hours Away</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkthegale/pseuds/walkthegale'>walkthegale</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Worst Witch (TV 2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Magic, Snowed In, Winter Solstice</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:41:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>884</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27658505</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkthegale/pseuds/walkthegale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's cold and dark outside, but Ada and Hecate have somewhere to be.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ada Cackle/Hecate Hardbroom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>36</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hours Away</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassiopeiasara/gifts">cassiopeiasara</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Ada, we’re going to be late.”</p>
<p>Ada pushes the fluffy duvet away from her face, just enough that she can squint across the dim bedroom at Hecate. “Must we go?”</p>
<p>Hecate is implacable. “You wanted to attend this meet just as much as I did.”</p>
<p>Ada sighs heavily. “You’re right, of course.” She sticks her leg out from under the covers experimentally. “I had perhaps not considered how cold and dark it would be outside. Nor how nice our accommodations.”</p>
<p>The house they’ve rented really is delightfully snug - with a large wood fire, several plump, inviting armchairs, and a soft bed that does not lend itself to being left. They’re here in northern Iceland for the winter solstice festival, but that doesn’t start in earnest until tonight, and their plan to meet up with a few of the other attending witches this morning seemed like a much better idea when it was being arranged from Ada’s office at Cackle’s than it does right now, with sunrise still some hours away.</p>
<p>But even the cosiest bed is less interesting without Hecate in it, and Hecate is currently standing across the room, looking somewhat tetchy.</p>
<p>With another sigh and a yawn, Ada gets up. She likes to carry out her morning routine without magic, to take her time over it - she finds that the process of it is a good way to help her prepare herself for the day - but today she completes the task briskly, pulling on a skirt and sweater and thick woolen socks. By the time she’s ready, Hecate has found both their cloaks and is waiting to hand Ada a steaming flask of hot chocolate, to keep her warm on their chilly walk into the village.</p>
<p>Ada smiles, reaching up to press a quick kiss to Hecate’s lips as she accepts the drink, and Hecate returns both kiss and smile, all trace of her earlier impatience melted away.</p>
<p>Taking Ada’s hand, Hecate turns, opens the front door, and immediately stops, as though she were frozen in place. For a moment Ada doesn’t realise what’s happening, and her heart gives a little skitter of surprise and worry, before she looks past Hecate.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of snow outside. When they arrived the previous evening, there had already been a thick layer of it in every direction, but it had been a manageable depth. Since then, however, it seems that a significant quantity has fallen and it’s banked so high up against the house that it would reach above Ada’s waist were she to try to walk through it.</p>
<p>A little snow falls in through the open doorway, landing with a gentle, spattering thud on the toes of Hecate’s boots.</p>
<p>“It seems,” Ada says, presently. “That we’re snowed in.”</p>
<p>Hecate nods. “The brooms are under there, somewhere. I knew we should have brought them inside.”</p>
<p>Ada peers out further, taking in the pristine white blanket over the world, untouched in the circle of light around the house.  “I’ll send a message that we won’t be able to make it to the meet.”</p>
<p>“I can get us out,” Hecate insists. “I’ll melt us a path, or I’m sure I could manage a transfer…”</p>
<p>Ada appreciates the offer. At home she wouldn’t hesitate, but here in the deep north, on unfamiliar ground and with all the wild magic of the solstice thick in the air, she isn’t sure it’s a good idea. She doesn’t doubt that Hecate could manage it, but it would take up such a lot of her energy - energy that she’ll need for the festival that night. They’ll need to use some of that magic to free themselves from this small predicament then, of course, but best they’re both at full strength when that time comes.</p>
<p>“No, dear,” she says, though she can see in Hecate’s face that Hecate has already come to the same conclusions that she has. “I do think we’re snowed in.” Ada lets a hint of mischief spill into her tone, as she catches Hecate’s eye. “What a <em>shame</em>, we’ll just have to find something else to do with ourselves today, trapped all alone here in this lovely, <em>romantic</em> little cottage...”</p>
<p>Half a smile creeps across Hecate’s face, and she closes the door firmly and deliberately.</p>
<p>“I suppose,” she says, stepping closer to Ada, “that we will have no shortage of opportunities to see everyone else later.”</p>
<p>Ada nods, a shiver passing through her that has nothing to do with the lingering cold air from outside. She looks up into Hecate’s face, as Hecate slides her arms around Ada’s waist, tugging her in close. They so rarely have this sort of time and space to themselves, with no threat of work or students or the general miscellaneous emergencies that come with running a school to interrupt them. Ada suddenly can’t possibly imagine why they hadn’t planned the day this way in the first place.</p>
<p>She stands up on her tiptoes and catches Hecate’s mouth in a fierce, proprietary kiss. Hecate draws in a sharp breath and then is kissing her back, her mouth soft and hot and enthusiastic against Ada’s, her hands already seeking a path under Ada’s cloak.</p>
<p>Unwilling to waste a moment of this precious, beautiful gift of a day, Ada leads Hecate back to the bedroom.</p>
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